Tear of a Doll

Biography

Formed in Paris in 1988 as a sequel to Heimat-los, Tear of a Doll (which was called Tears of a Doll until 1994) added various influences to an hardcore punk base (jazzcore, japan noise, prog-rock, world music) and used dissonant chords, complex structures and occasionally exotic instruments such as sitar or sarod. The unique sound they created is best exemplified on their 1996 full-length untitled album. They also appear on Erase-Yer-Head #9 EP with Melt Banana, God is my Co-Pilot and Camp Blackfoot (1999) with a more avant garde sound prefiguring the "concrete pop" experiments of their guitarist Naing Naing.

"T.O.D." as they call themselves sing in several languages (english, japanese, french, german and hungarian) following the steps of Heimat-los (one of the very first french hardcore band).

In 1992, after ex-Heimat-los singer Norbert left the band, they replaced him with a female vocalist Astrid aka Maya who had been in a jazz band together with Tear(s) of a Doll bassplayer (that band was called Totem and their drummer would later join Magma's choir. After Astrid/Maya joined lot of earlier material was removed from their repertoire to focus on new songs. Their 3rd demo "La fille aux allumettes", recorded in January 1993 shows a clear change in their sound.

They were originally called Tears of a Doll with an S. The S was dropped in November 1994 during the recording session of their 4th demo tape "Une Araignée dans le plafond" at the suggestion of the sound engineer Flox.

In 1996 they spent over two months and a half in a studio (analog / 24 tracks) to record a full length testament album... knowing their guitarist would soon spend one year in Burma on a scholarship program. One day before he left they play a show with NoMeansNo. The self-produced album finally came out in April 1997 on Pandemonium Records (Marseille), with no promo tour.

T.O.D. has been on hiatus for years after their guitarist Francois L'Homer relocated to Myanmar (Burma) as humanitarian worker. But he came back to France in 2006 and the band official website announced that members of T.O.D. were planning a come back.

Members of Tear of a Doll are currently involved in the following projects:

- Guitarist (François) produces even more offbeat music under the moniker Naing Naing (concrete pop).

- Drummer (Orkhan) drums for Nosfell, guitarist is doing Naing Naing.

- Vocalist (Astrid) is doing Miss Maya.

Official website: www.tearofadoll.com Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.